The present invention relates to the general technical field of electric cooking appliances of the type having a cooking enclosure as well as a movable or removable element, such as for example a removable bowl, a lid, or even a door, and heating means. The present invention is more particularly, but not exclusively, directed to electric fryers. The invention concerns specifically safety and/or control devices for such appliances.
It is known to manufacture electric fryers with a removable bowl in which the heating means are mounted at the bottom of a case provided to receive the removable bowl. In order to prevent such an appliance from operating in the absence of a bowl or in the presence of an incorrectly positioned bowl, it is known to equip the appliance with a device for detecting the presence of the bowl, this device including a switch provided to interrupt the supply of current to the heating means if the bowl is not present, or is not correctly positioned, in the case. It is also known to provide electric cooking appliances with a main on-off switch.
The patent document GB 2 222 025 discloses a safety and/or control device for an electric appliance, the appliance having an enclosure associated with heating means mounted in a removable manner on a current supply base. The safety and/or control device includes at least one switch arranged to close the supply circuit of the heating means, this switch including a case and an actuating button, or actuator, a sensing element movable between a first, heating, position and a second, off, position, and a control means accessible from outside of the case and movable between an on position and an off position. The appliance also includes a bistable actuator cooperating with the switch. The actuator is controlled by the sensing element, the control means and a camming surface of the base. Such an arrangement is expensive to fabricate when it is desired to control a switch by two sensing elements or a control element.